Katinka Matson in THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: John Brockman <brockman () edge org>
Date: Sat, 14 Dec 2002 13:23:13 -0500
To: farber () central cis upenn edu (David Farber)
Subject: Katinka Matson in THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE

Dave,

Greetings!

Katinka Matson hits the big time today with a review In the NYTM of
her art work using the scanner as a lens. It's really interesting
that it was only in 1975 when Ray Kurzweil invented the flat-bed
scanner. (By coincidence, he happens to be a friend of ours and was
stunned when he saw the quality of the work. Unintended
consequences). The article, which is linked from her site, might be
of interested to your list:

Katinka Matson's Website:
http://www.katinkamatson.com


Best,

JB


THE NEW YORK TIME MAGAZINE
Sunday, December 15, 2002

The Year in Ideas - 2002
SCANNER PHOTOGRAPHY
By Paul Tough

SCANNER PHOTOGRAPHY * Many of the old rules of photography have been
shattered in recent years by the introduction of cheap digital
cameras and image manipulation programs like Photoshop. But one
assumption has remained unquestioned: every photograph requires a
camera, and every camera needs a lens.

Not anymore. This year, two different artists working independently,
one on each coast, mounted exhibits that were remarkably similar: a
collection of dazzling images of cut flowers, "photographed" not with
a camera but with the moving lens of a flatbed scanner, the kind used
in offices every day.

Mark McAfee Brown, an artist and designer in Mountain View, Calif,
displayed his "Night Blooms" in a show at the Palo Alto Research
Center this fall. Katinka Matson, a literary agent and artist in New
York, exhibited "Forty Flowers" and "Twelve Flowers" on her Web site
beginning in January. Both artists create their images by placing
flowers and other natural objects on top of a 12-by- 17-inch scanner
- they leave the top raised to avoid crushing the flowers - and then
scanning the arrangement from below. The method creates a digital
image that is vivid and precise: a photograph that requires neither
film nor camera.

              [IMAGE: Scanner Photography; Katinka Matson]

Behind this new style of photography is the idea that the moving wand
of a scanner can capture a sense of perspective, a richness of color
and a level of detail that a single, static lens cannot. Back when
scanners were used only to reproduce flat images like prints or
documents or book pages, people assumed that images created on a
scanner would lack depth. In fact, the opposite is true: the flowers
look thick and voluptuous, and the images seem almost
three-dimensional. Petals touching the screen appear crisp, while
ones raised an inch or two are ghostly shadows, fading into blackness.

As the moving lens slides along the surface of one of Matson's
tulips, it is able to view the flower from all sides; her floral
pictures are so intense that looking at them, you almost get the
feeling that you are able to peer around the flowers themselves.
Another advantage: the distortion that a single lens inevitably
creates disappears - details at the corners of these pictures are as
sharp and clear as those at the center.

Kevin Kelly, an author and photographer who often addresses the
confluence of nature and technology, writes in an introductory essay
on Matson's Web site that she "is at the forefront of a new wave in
photography, or what we should call new imaging." Kelly invites
viewers to "imagine a painter who could, like Vermeer, capture the
quality of light that a camera can, but with the color of paints.
That is what a scanner gives you. Now imagine a gifted artist like
Matson exploring what the world looks like when it can only see two
inches in front of its eye, but with infinite detail!" PAUL TOUGH

~~
NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE Article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/15/magazine/15SCAN.html

Katinka Matson's Website:
http://www.katinkamatson.com
-- 
John Brockman
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President                 brockman () edge org
Edge Foundation, Inc.                 tel: 212.935.8900 x11
5 East 59th Street              fax: 212.935.5535
New York, NY 10022
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Visit the EDGE Website at: http://www.edge.org
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